Extra day added to U.N. climate talks in Poland in December

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FILE PHOTO: Protesters throw up a globe-shaped balloon during a rally held the day before the start of the 2015 Paris World Climate Change Conference, known as the COP21 summit, in Rome, Italy, November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - An annual global climate change meeting due to be held in Poland in December will start a day earlier than planned to allow more work to be done, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.

Government ministers will try to agree on rules for implementing the Paris agreement, which was adopted by almost 200 nations in 2015 and is due to come into force in 2020.

“It was agreed that an early opening of the session will provide an opportunity to make the best use of the time available to finalize negotiations on the work program under the Paris Agreement,” the UNFCCC, which steers the climate talks, said in a statement.

The talks, attended by around 190 countries, will take place in Katowice in southern Poland from Dec. 2 to Dec. 14, instead of Dec. 3-14, the UNFCCC said.

The Paris agreement sets a goal of limiting warming to “well below” a rise of 2 degrees C above pre-industrial times while “pursuing efforts” for the tougher goal of 1.5 degrees C.

During preliminary talks in Thailand this week, Fiji’s Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama said governments were unprepared for the Poland meeting later this year, and Patricia Espinosa, head of the UNFCCC, told Reuters that governments were not on track to meet the 2 degree temperature limit goal.